Chef’s Travel Bag: A Kitchen On Your Back

This bag is either an itinerant chef’s dream, or simply the well thought out kit of a serial-killer.

Designed by three Carnegie Mellon students, the bag lets a cook carry everything he needs with him. Think of it as an OCD picnic basket. Much like a camera-bag, the Chef’s Bag has a place for everything: sleeves for knives, peelers, graters, books and of course Band-Aids. Unlike a camera bag, the Chef’s Bag is designed not only to protect the gear inside, but also to protect the carrier from the contents.

Why would you take so much with you? Pro chefs can be very precious about their kit. Watch a bartender trying to borrow a simple, cheap fruit-knife from the kitchen and you’ll see what I mean. Also, the tools become familiar. When I moved from England to Spain, I gave away most of my possessions. The bulk of gear that I shipped was kitchen equipment — after spending years to find the right peeler, knife or pan, you don’t want to use somebody else’s.

The bag is just a one-off student project right now, but we’d like to see it come to market. At the very least, it’s better than the awful chef’s briefcase, a plastic monstrosity full of knives that seems to be standard issue at catering college.